Flagger

by Laramie Briscoe

  “You wanted to see me?”

  Cash’s body language as soon as he walked in told Liam he was nervous, and he wanted to do his best to set him at ease. “You aren’t in trouble or anything, I promise. We just want to talk to you.”

  He visibly relaxed and had a seat in the chair opposite Liam. “Okay, what do you want to talk about?”

  Jagger picked up the conversation. “If you’ve paid attention to any of my bitching over the past year, you know that B and I bought some land and built a house.”

  Cash nodded. That had been a huge source of bitching at the shop, for the last three months, especially. “Yeah, I’m following.”

  “The house got done last week. We close on it tomorrow, and then we’ll have to start paying the mortgage on it. B and I didn’t expect the house to be done for at least a few more months. We still have six months left on the lease at the apartment. To be perfectly honest with you, my man, it’s gonna be tight for us to pay rent and a mortgage. I heard you need a place to stay and wanted to ask you if you wanted to take over the rent on the apartment.”

  Cash was floored. That would mean he wouldn’t have to go through a credit check, he wouldn’t have to go through references, there would be no deposit to pay. This was the answer to everything he had been struggling with. “I’d love to.”

  “It’s five hundred a month. You may need to get a roommate. There’s two bedrooms, but one is really small, I’ll be completely honest with you.”

  Cash’s stomach plummeted. Five hundred was a lot, but it was around the same amount he’d been giving his mom. He would definitely need a roommate, but he immediately had an idea. “I think I know someone who needs this as much as I do, but I need to go see her, convince her that this will be a good idea.”

  “Sure, take off,” Liam told him. “Do what you need to. If you need to be here all day one day this weekend, you can do that. Whatever you need.”

  Jagger clapped him on the shoulder. “If you wanna come over in a few hours and see the apartment, bring her, whoever she is.” He chuckled at the other guy. “I’ll be around.”

  “Thank you,” Cash told them. “You don’t even know…”

  “Stop.” Liam held up his hand to staunch the flow of words coming from his mouth. “We’ve all been there, Cash. We’re just proud and relieved we can help you. There’s no judgment here.”

  That was the one thing he’d wanted all his life. Help without the judgment. He didn’t need the sympathy in people’s eyes as they talked about who his mom was and how sad they were for the kids. All he’d ever wanted or needed was the help, but that help always came with strings attached.

  Finally he and Remy were going to have everything they’d ever wanted and needed. He just had to convince Harper she would be in a great situation with him, because he did need help, he did need extra income, and there was absolutely no way he could get that without her. Street racing was dangerous and paid good money, but he had to put a lot of the money he won back into the car. He could afford the rent, but not the utilities, and sure as hell not food, healthcare, or the medical bill he’d just put on a payment plan for Remy without help.

  Harper just had to say yes. It was the only way this was going to work out.

  ‡

  Chapter Fifteen

  Harper was intrigued. The text message from Cash that said he had an answer to all her problems had definitely piqued her interest. When she’d answered back, he’d texted her an address and asked her to meet him there. She knew where the place was; she knew it wasn’t in the best part of town, but not the worst and she knew a lot of college kids lived around the area.

  As she pulled up to a garage with what looked like an apartment on top of it, she saw Cash’s car along with a bike and a man wearing a Heaven Hill cut. Now she was nervous, but she trusted Cash, so she would do whatever this was. She parked as a pretty blonde woman came down the stairs of the apartment and cuddled up to the man wearing the cut. She turned off the car, and Cash walked over as she got out.

  “Hey,” he greeted her, kissing her on the cheek. “Thanks for coming.”

  She hugged him to her for a second, unsure of where it came from; she only knew she felt safe with him. “No problem. I do have to say, I’m wondering what’s going on.”

  “I’ll explain it all,” he told her, grabbing her hand and pulling her over to where the two people stood waiting on them.

  Jagger glanced at the entwined hands of Cash and Harper and grinned at Cash. “Who’s this?”

  “A friend.” Cash hoped he evaded what would be a long round of twenty-questions. “Don’t run her off. I haven’t explained to her about what’s going on here yet.”

  Bianca rolled her eyes at the two of them and stepped forward, shoving her hand out to the other woman. “Hi, I’m Bianca, better known to everyone who knows me as B. This is my husband, Jagger.” She hooked her thumb towards the cut-wearing member of Heaven Hill. “Since the two of them can’t figure out how to do this, let me take the lead.” B explained the situation. “We’re gonna show you around and see if this is a place you’d like to rent. End of story.” She smiled at Harper.

  Harper’s eyes widened. “Oh.” She glanced at Cash. “You want me to move in with you?”

  “Out of necessity,” he was quick to defend himself. “This might work out for all of us. You can’t afford a full apartment; I can’t afford a full apartment. Just go into this with an open mind, Harper, please.”

  What other choice did she have? Even the rooms for rent were really more than she could afford right now. She had cried earlier, wondering what she was going to do, almost getting to the point where she was going to ask Nat if it would be okay with her mom if she stayed. This could be the answer to everything she’d worried about. “Okay.” She nodded. “I’ll look at it with you, but be prepared I might say no.”

  He prayed to God she wouldn’t. He needed her right now, more than he’d ever needed another human being.

  “Let’s go on up.” Jagger pointed towards the stairs, indicating for them to have at it.

  *

  Cash walked into the apartment and sucked in a breath. It was small, very small. Jagger hadn’t been lying when he told him that. Probably one of the reasons it was so cheap.

  “I know it’s small,” Jagger told them. “But on the back side there is a large deck I covered and screened in last year with the permission of the landlord. It’s roughly the same size of the apartment, so it’s doubled the space, and with a heater, you can even go out there in the winter, unless it’s frigid. It’s made a huge difference.”

  “The only problem I see,” Bianca told the two of them, wanting this girl to know what she was getting into, “is there are only two bedrooms and three of you.”

  “Three?” Harper turned on Cash, surprise on her face and questions in her eyes.

  Cash leveled a look at Bianca. “My little brother. I mentioned him to you earlier.”

  “I remember now.”

  “The good news,” Jagger interrupted, “is that the deck is off the biggest bedroom, so if the two of you wanted to share that, then there would be some more living space.”

  Share a bedroom with this man? Harper wasn’t sure how that would go, but she knew it was a possibility. Even now, when he stared at her, all she could think of was lying across the bed with him over top of her at his secret rendezvous spot. “We’ll figure it out,” she said quickly, because honestly, this was her only option. “If you want to do this, I’ll do it. It won’t be forever, right? At some point, we’ll graduate or get full-time jobs and work our way out of this.”

  “Right.” Cash nodded. “It’s a temporary solution.”

  “So you two wanna take over the rent?” Jagger asked.

  “Yes,” they said at the same time.

  Bianca clapped. “Great, that saves us a lot of money. I just wanted to let you know, we’re leaving everything but the stuff in the bedroom. We bought all new furniture for the house, but the be
d and dressers are brand new, so we’ll be taking that. There’s not another bed in the second room.”

  “But we’ll figure that out,” Jagger was quick to say. “Whatever the three of you need, we’ll help you get it.”

  Cash felt another punch of emotion to his chest. Would this really end up working out for them? It had to; he had to figure out a way to make it work. “I don’t know how to thank you,” he started, but couldn’t finish.

  “No need. We’ve all been there.” Bianca smiled sadly at him. Unfortunately, they all had, with parents, with loved ones, with money issues. None of them had been immune, and that was why she and Jagger were so happy to help.

  “When can we move in?” Harper asked, excitement in her voice. She was ready.

  “We close tomorrow,” Jagger told her. “As soon as we sign the papers and get the keys, we’re moving the bedroom over there, and we’ll be out.”

  “So tomorrow the two of you can move in here,” B told them, smiling happily. “We should be out of here by four tomorrow afternoon, then it’s yours. I’ll help the two of you get the utilities transferred into your names,” she offered. They were kids and probably had no idea how any of this worked.

  “I would appreciate that.” Harper was relieved. She hadn’t been sure how to go about doing any of that.

  Harper’s heart beat faster in anticipation, but she couldn’t help but smile as they walked out of the apartment. Jagger and B didn’t follow them, so when she and Cash got to the driveway, she turned to face him. “Thank you for thinking of me.”

  He put his arms around her neck and pulled her close. He wasn’t sure if he needed her or just a warm body to anchor him, but his emotions were so mixed up, he needed something. He needed a fucking race. “We both need this,” he explained. “And for some reason I trust my brother with you. I don’t trust him with just anyone.”

  Harper didn’t want to look too closely at that because she already had so many other feelings going through her. “I’ll take good care of him.” She smiled. It was meant to be reassuring, but it was shaky. They were about to embark on a new adventure in life together, and they’d only truly known each other for a few days. “I gotta go to work,” she told him. “My shift starts in twenty minutes, but I’ll be here tomorrow around four. I have a bed; it’s a queen size, so if it comes down to it,” she lowered her voice, “we could share.”

  That gave him all kinds of images to think about. “We’ll make decisions on what we need to do tomorrow,” he told her, not wanting to set anything in concrete until they were in the apartment and could see how it was all going to work.

  She nodded, leaned up, and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “I gotta go.”

  He walked her over to her car and shut the door for her, leaning in through the open window. “Thank you, Harper. You don’t know how much this helped me.”

  “We’re helping each other, and I’m thankful you asked me. I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

  She started the car and reversed out of the driveway. As he watched her take a four-way stop and head back towards campus, he took a deep breath. His life would be changing, and in a big way. He’d never lived with a woman besides his mom before, and he wondered just how much of an adjustment it would be. Before his thoughts ran away, his phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out, reading the text message.

  Grandma’s got some cherry pie for dinner tonight! See you at ten for dessert…

  Just what he needed. The Trail was on.

  ‡

  Chapter Sixteen

  Harper couldn’t believe she was back here at the Trail again, and this time what happened with Cash mattered. Not only did he need the money, they needed the money. She had yet to tell Nat what was going on. It was still hard for her to believe that tomorrow afternoon she’d be moving in with Cash Montgomery. She would be living with him, and all signs were pointing to sharing a bedroom, if not a bed, with him.

  “Harper.” Her head whipped around when she heard his deep, southern-tinged voice call her name. “C’mere.” He crooked his finger towards her, and she couldn’t even stop the forward movement of her feet.

  She felt every eye of the spectators of the Trail on her. Most of them were wondering what they were doing, she could hear the whispers. If only those people knew the situations they’d gotten themselves into. “Yeah?” she questioned as she approached where he leaned against the front quarter-panel of his car.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key ring, which he handed to her. “Jagger gave these to me before I left. Like he said, any time after four.”

  The whispers got louder as she stuffed the keys into the front pocket of her shorts. It was still a warm night, and jeans just weren’t going to cut it. “I’ll be there.”

  They stood together. “I wanted to say thank you for agreeing to this hair-brained idea.” He grinned, the right side of his mouth tilting up. “You didn’t have to say yes, and I’m sure you have other options.”

  She was sure if she looked around hard enough what he said was true, but there was also a part of her that wanted to live with him. Harper wanted to see if he was the type of guy she thought he was, not the one that everyone assumed they knew. One taste of him and she wanted more. His personality was enigmatic, and there was something about him that made her want to get to know him better. She felt safe with him, which she knew was crazy, because they’d only known each other for a very short time. Brushing her blonde hair back over her shoulder, she leveled him with a gaze.

  “I’m sure there were other options, but I don’t want them. For some reason, I want to be with you. Don’t think I’m telling you I want to own a piece of you. I know you really aren’t a one-woman kind of guy, at least that’s what all the rumors say. I’m going into this with my eyes wide open. I just want you to know that.”

  Cash opened his mouth and then closed it. How did he tell her that rumors were just that…rumors? Some things were true, yes. He’d been a dick many times in his life, but if he were true to himself, he could easily admit he wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to do with her. Something was different about Harper Stillwell, but he didn’t want to admit that. Instead, he kept it vague. “Thanks, at least I know I don’t have to worry about you getting pissed at me.”

  “No, I’m completely aware of what living with you may be like; especially if we decide we don’t want to keep the physical side of our relationship going.”

  Cash tilted his head, grinning. “I’m pretty sure both of us want to keep that going. We have chemistry, you can’t deny that.”

  She let his arms encircle her waist, not caring about who was watching. His hands moved down to cup the cheeks of her jean-clad ass. Her fingers tangled up in the cotton of his T-shirt, trying to keep him away, trying to keep her wits about her, but in the end, she pulled him closer, letting their lips meet in a kiss that was so hot it could have melted the rubber off the tires on his car. She pulled back, licking her lips. “Good luck out there.”

  His hands tightened on her as she tried to walk away. “I’ve never said this to anybody before, but Harper, I’m running this race for us. We need this.”

  They did, and she knew it. Right now she was broke and kind of figured he was too, and if they were in this together, they were both going to have to make this work. “You just go out there, win this race, and tomorrow after we’ve done all we can do at the apartment, we’ll sit down and talk about it.”

  He swallowed, the tension in his back releasing. It was nice to know he wasn’t in this alone. He had a partner, even if they had been thrown together by circumstance. She was willing to be in this with him fifty percent. “Okay.” He glanced up, seeing Rodrigo getting the guys together. “I gotta go. Will you wait for me after the race is over?”

  “I rode with Nat.” She bit her bottom lip.

  “I’ll take you home.”

  After tomorrow, they would be going to the same one every night.

  “Okay.” She
nodded.

  They let go of each other, and she walked back over to the spectator area, almost in a stupor.

  “You have so much explaining to do,” Nat told her; tapping her foot on the ground, hand on hip.

  “Trust me, if I told you everything that’s happened in the past few days, you wouldn’t even believe me.”

  *

  Cash rolled his head around on shoulders tight with tension. This race meant more than any of the ones before it. If he could win this, it would give him a bit of a cushion. That cushion meant more than anything, now that he was going to have what he considered a family to take care of. He worried already. How were they going to pay utilities, how were they going to eat, how were they going to provide a stable environment and medical care for his brother?

  “Get your head in the game,” he told himself as he saw the flagger walk to the starting grid. This one looked just like the rest, in shorts that left nothing to the imagination and a tank top that rode up her stomach. He couldn’t help but think of Harper, wearing almost the same outfit but looking a million times classier, as she watched from the sidelines.

  He couldn’t jump the start on this; he needed this to go well. Focusing his mind on the bandana she held in her hand, he watched it fall, and then it was game on. In the past, Cash had toyed with his opponents, making it exciting for the spectators and fans of the Trail to watch, but Slim wasn’t here tonight, and there wasn’t any competition besides him. The rest of the guys were too scared to lose their cars to really race him.

  He crossed the finish line almost a full second ahead the rest of them. It completely didn’t matter to him, it was just more money in his pocket.

  ‡

  Chapter Seventeen

  Harper’s heart beat a million times faster than it normally did as she pulled up to the apartment that was hers, for at least a few months. Cash had texted her and let her know Jagger and Bianca had officially moved out. Earlier in the day, the two of them had quietly snuck in to her aunt’s apartment while she was at work, grabbed the things she would need, and she’d watched as Cash and Tyler Blackfoot loaded her bed into the back of a truck. He’d told her by the time she got off work he’d have it set up, with clean sheets. She’d believed him. He’d been nothing but in charge since this whole situation had gone down.